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Heightened land erosion, caused by human activity, has many negative effects including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean's environment.A) including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean's environment.B) including: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and harmful chemicals entering the ocean's environment.C) including: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean's environment.D) including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and harmful chemicals entering the ocean’s environment.E) including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, certain fish populations rising, certain fish populations falling, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean’s environment.

When you are introducing a list with a :you have to use following, in B and C, what is the need of the colon? you can simply say harmful effects including X, Y, Z. Thus B and C are clearly wrong. E needlessly and awckwardly expands 'imbalance in fish population' to "certain fish populations rising, certain fish populations falling" This makes it incorrect.Between A and D: split is in "introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean's environment" or "harmful chemicals entering the ocean’s environment". To maintain parallel structure with destruction/imbalance , we need to use a noun - thus inttroduction is prefered to entering.Hence A

(1) 'imbalance of the fish population' is parallel with 'the introduction of harmful chemicals....' (2) Also, 'the introduction' is needed in the beginning to keep the parallel structure. _________________

No doubt ‘including the following’ is redundant. Between B and C that drop this phrase, C is better because the fourth arm of the list namely, ‘harmful chemicals entering the ocean’s environment’ in B is not the same as ‘the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean's environment’ in C both in meaning and //ism with other arms of the list. _________________

Heightened land erosion, caused by human activity, has many negative effects including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean's environment.

A) including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean's environment.B) including: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and harmful chemicals entering the ocean's environment.C) including: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean's environment.D) including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and harmful chemicals entering the ocean’s environment.E) including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, certain fish populations rising, certain fish populations falling, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean’s environment.

Very nice explanation from senior member daagh about why "following" is mandatory here.

The basic essence of the use of colon is that the preceding clause lying before the mark, should not leave an inkling of incompleteness. It should stand by itself but more importantly should not tend to end abruptly in meaning before the colon and should not lean on the list for completing the meaning. Thus it becomes essential, wordy though, to use the word 'following'. B and C therefore fall by the wayside.

Among A, D and E, D breaks the sense of llism by using an absolute phrase ‘ harmful chemicals entering’ in the fourth arm of the list.E distorts the meaning in trying to define imbalance of fish population in a weird day.

Maintaining perfect llism, A stands out as the eligible choice, IMO. _________________

"Giving kudos" is a decent way to say "Thanks" and motivate contributors.Please use them, it won't cost you anything.Thanks Rphardu

Heightened land erosion, caused by human activity, has many negative effects including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean's environment.

A) including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean's environment.B) including: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and harmful chemicals entering the ocean's environment.C) including: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean's environment.D) including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and harmful chemicals entering the ocean’s environment.E) including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, certain fish populations rising, certain fish populations falling, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean’s environment.

Very nice explanation from senior member daagh about why "following" is mandatory here.

The basic essence of the use of colon is that the preceding clause lying before the mark, should not leave an inkling of incompleteness. It should stand by itself but more importantly should not tend to end abruptly in meaning before the colon and should not lean on the list for completing the meaning. Thus it becomes essential, wordy though, to use the word 'following'. B and C therefore fall by the wayside.

Among A, D and E, D breaks the sense of llism by using an absolute phrase ‘ harmful chemicals entering’ in the fourth arm of the list.E distorts the meaning in trying to define imbalance of fish population in a weird day.

Maintaining perfect llism, A stands out as the eligible choice, IMO.

I agree that the use of following is required here. I had noted from somewhere (dnt remember where so Can't give due credit), that colon should not be used at following places:

1). After such as or including

All of the old gang were there, including : Mush Head, Beaver, Sparky, and Mole.- Incorrect colon use

2). Directly after a form of verb be

The three most popular composers of classical music, according to the poll, are : Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven.- Incorrect colon use

3). Between a verb and its object or between a preposition and its object.

Yes, I agree; following is indeed required to complete the sentence. A is the right answer.

However, there is an interesting aside to this issue, which I saw just now. An honorable member by name rpardhu has observed the following about me saying “very nice explanation from senior member daagh about why "following" is mandatory here”. One can see the sarcasm there

But the funny part is that I never explained any such thing about ‘following’ so nicely. Nor did I say ‘following’ is mandatory

I simply said that ‘no doubt following is redundant’. Probably our honorable member did not know the difference between redundant and mandatory.

To help him understand, let me make it clear the mandatory means required by authority or compulsory; redundant means superfluous or excess. I think this should help our honorable member. However, considering that everybody is human and everybody is error-prone, I will ignore this allusion. _________________

Heightened land erosion, caused by human activity, has many negative effects including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean's environment.

A) including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean's environment.B) including: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and harmful chemicals entering the ocean's environment.C) including: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean's environment.D) including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, imbalance of the fish population, and harmful chemicals entering the ocean’s environment.E) including the following: algae blooms, coral reef destruction, certain fish populations rising, certain fish populations falling, and the introduction of harmful chemicals to the ocean’s environment.

Very nice explanation from senior member daagh about why "following" is mandatory here.

The basic essence of the use of colon is that the preceding clause lying before the mark, should not leave an inkling of incompleteness. It should stand by itself but more importantly should not tend to end abruptly in meaning before the colon and should not lean on the list for completing the meaning. Thus it becomes essential, wordy though, to use the word 'following'. B and C therefore fall by the wayside.

Among A, D and E, D breaks the sense of llism by using an absolute phrase ‘ harmful chemicals entering’ in the fourth arm of the list.E distorts the meaning in trying to define imbalance of fish population in a weird day.

Maintaining perfect llism, A stands out as the eligible choice, IMO.

I agree that the use of following is required here. I had noted from somewhere (dnt remember where so Can't give due credit), that colon should not be used at following places:

1). After such as or including

All of the old gang were there, including : Mush Head, Beaver, Sparky, and Mole.- Incorrect colon use

2). Directly after a form of verb be

The three most popular composers of classical music, according to the poll, are : Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven.- Incorrect colon use

3). Between a verb and its object or between a preposition and its object.

The tourists went to: Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec.- Incorrect colon use

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